VERSE:
Issigonis a name you can not rhyme,
But Mini Coopers are his in claiming.
If his parents could've guessed his fame,
They’d have done better in the naming.


REFRAIN:
Love our MINIs we do sing,
Never shall we waver.
Cup holders don't hold a thing,
But driving fun in ma-jor.

 

Carols before Thanksgiving? You should all be ashamed of yourselves!

A Thanksgiving Poem for Sir Alec:

 

There once was man from Boston,
who bought himself an Austin.
There was room for his a**,
and Gallon of gas,
but his b***s hung, so he lost 'em.

Happy B'Day Alec!

BCNU,
Rob in Dago

 

Thanks for the reminder! Three cheers!!!!!!!

 

Sir Alec would have been 99 today...

Excerpt from a 1979 Autocar Magazine interview:

So we left for lunch, Sir Alec driving — a Mini, of course. But not any old Mini — a gearless Mini. "You were asking what the car of the future might be like, my dear," he said. "It'll be a car without any gears — with forward, reverse and neutral. Mark my words, within 10 years the barbaric gearlever will have disappeared." Would we all be driving automatics, then? "Not automatics as you know them today, but gearless."

In the car, incidentally, he did not belt up. And the car had no radio. "I never wear a safety belt," he said. "It is much easier to drive without having an accident,' he added. "I have never had a car radio; I like concentrating on the job of driving. I never smoke when I drive either."

"The Chinese in their wisdom, I'm told, have a law: it's illegal to speak to a driver." So I stopped asking questions. Over lunch he talked of how he designed the Morris Minor and the Mini. "I'm the last of the Bugattis," he said. "A man who designed whole cars. Now committees do the work." Or computers? "Now meetings are held to decide where to have meetings. When I was working on the Morris Minor, a meeting with more than two people was overcrowded,' he said, ignoring my interjection about computers. Sir Alec, the designer who refuses to give up even though way past retirement age, is now a design consultant with an experimental workshop. Meetings are held — in his drawing room — every weekday morning.

Final comments from Sir Alec, talking of how he developed the Mini. "At Cowley I had an experimental department. They were making a bubble car. I said 'Never, never copy the opposition' — and there and then decided on the Mini. I feel very, very proud that so many people have copied me."

 

A celebration is in order! I think I'll run a few laps w/ my Scalextric Mini Cooper S ('67 Monte winner) this evening in his honor. Perhaps I'll leave my radio off, too.

 

VERSE:

There once was man from Nantucket
Whose reply to big cars was .. "F&*$ It"
He owned only a Cooper,
"Small is big, I think my MINI is super"

REFRAIN:
Love our MINIs we do sing,
Never shall we waver.
Cup holders don't hold a thing,
But driving fun in ma-jor.

 

Back to the Carol:

VERSE
Sunny days and chilly nights
perfect for my Cooper
Windows down, butt-warmers on
Oh my gosh, it's super!

REFRAIN:
Love our MINIs we do sing,
Never shall we waver.
Cup holders don't hold a thing,
But driving fun in ma-jor.